Most markets buying Irish weanlings no longer want heavy, U-grading cattle. This was the advice of Arthur Bredin of Western Livestock Exports at a recent Macra na Feirme farm walk in Co Leitrim.

Bredin said the demand for U grading weanlings over 400kg is no longer coming from exporters in the way it had done in the past.

“About 10 years ago, there was a big market in Italy for those U=, U+ (Belgian) Blue-type animals. But then the economy in Italy crashed and it never recovered,” Bredin said.

He added that most suckler-bred weanlings exported are more likely to go into north Africa or Turkey, with the latter importing some 1m beef cattle last year alone.

He explained that good-quality but lighter continental stock is what these markets now want.

“They [Turkey] are a massive importer of stock. They like the smaller cattle as they feel they are getting value for money. They like Irish cattle and the quality we produce but there’s a price there … They want the Mercedes for the price of the Fiat,” he said.

Bredin said markets that take Irish beef cattle such as Turkey, Algeria and Morocco prefer cattle out of the marts that are no heavier than 300kg and grade an R= or R+.

“The days of €3/kg for those cattle over 350kg are long gone, I’m afraid,” Bredin said, advising farmers to check what the market is looking for before selling stock.

He said importers of cattle in the Middle East are keeping a close eye on mart prices in Ireland.

The ‘tragic legacy’ of the BDGP

Bredin expressed concern with the overall quality of stock now being produced on Irish suckler farms. He said farmers need to look at what they want out of their beef enterprise and how that matches to the type of cattle they keep.

He pointed out that while the Beef Data and Genomics Programme (BDGP) had many positives, including “opening up farmers’ eyes on cow performance”, it also had contributed to a lessening of the quality in the beef herd.

“All you have to do is go to any mart and you’ll see the quality isn’t the same [as five years ago]. We have to consider what we want [out of beef farming].

“Some farmers took a shortcut in the BDGP … [they] bought in dairy-bred animals and bumped up their stars to get the job done,” he said, describing this strategy as a “tragic legacy” of the BDGP.